Cooperative movement in the arab world

Traditionally Egyptian history begins with the semi-legen dry Mina, the first ruler of the United Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt at the end of 4000 B.C. Since then, Egypt has been ruled by foreign nations as well as Arabs. Dynasty after dynasty this 'land of the Nile' experienced change, and every change gave way to revolution. On July, 23rd, 1952 a group of young army officers, the "Liberal Officers" who had long been planning a Coup D' etat, seized power in Cairo. Consequently, the land owned by the royal family was confiscated and in September 1952 land ownership was limited to 300 acres for any one family. This was a hard blow to the feudal class which had so far dominated the Egyptian rural scene and political life. On 18th June, 1952, Egypt was decla red a Republic. The great leader of Egypt, Col. Nasser, became President of the Egyptian Republic in June 1954. He introduced a number of reforms during his life time for the economic uplift of the masses which were later on implemented by President Anwar Sadaat. After Sadat's assasination in 1981 the new President Al-Husseni has declared that he will follow the policies of the predecessor. In fact the Egyptian economy has been functioning under war conditions since 1967 and all the reforms as well as structural and institutional changes in the economy have been brought to build up the economy on a war-footing. With Egypt's food problems worsening day by day the authorities are devising new ways and means for tackling these problems under planned economic development programmes.

A serious problem faced by Egypt is that of population explosion. During the past 30 years the area of arable land has been increased by 100 per cent or more. But the population has also increased at quite a fast rate and has now more than doubled.